Russian immigrants to the Kalmyk lands and their use by the Russian Orthodox Church as a means of christianizing the Kalmyks (the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries)

The article based on new archival documents shows the role which Russian migrants in the Kalmyk lands played for the Christianization of the Kalmyks. The Russian Orthodox Church tried to use Russian migrants in its missionary work in the Kalmyk steppe. In its turn, the Russian government supported the efforts of the Russian Orthodox Church aimed at Christianizing non-Russian peoples as that was in line with the course pursued by the Russian state to integrate the peoples of Russia into Russia’s social and cultural space. However, this policy contradicted to the Kalmyk legislation that prohibited people of non-Kalmyk origin to settle on Kalmyk lands. Following this law, the secular authorities did not allow the Russians to settle in missionary settlements and made those already residing there leave Kalmykia. The effectiveness of those acts depended on the personal qualities of the provincial and Kalmyk administration, primarily, on the degree of their religiosity. In most cases the provincial bureaucrats were indifferent to Orthodox missionary work choosing to stay within their immediate professional duties. The leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, on the contrary, did their best to support Russian migrants hoping that the latter would help it resolve numerous issues in its Orthodox missionary work in the Kalmyk steppe. However, in the early 1910s the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Russian immigration took a negative turn after the Christened Kalmyks had to leave the missionary settlements as the Russian population there kept on growing. The main reason why the missionary settlements with Christened Kalmyks and the Christening of the Kalmyks, in general, were a failure was that both secular and church authorities did not succeed in making the life-style image at the missionary settlements attractive for the Kalmyks. By converting to Christianity and settling down, the Kalmyks sought to improve their economic position and live a better life compared to their nomad counterparts, but their expectations were not met.